Abstract

Although a plethora of studies provide evidence of the extent and severity of violence that street workers experience from clients, there is little consensus across the explanations that have been advanced to account for this. To explore this, the present study examines in detail the nature of the attacks suffered by 65 street-workers. A Multidimensional Scaling analysis, (Smallest Space Analysis (SSA-I)) of 17 violent behaviours derived from a content analysis of interviews with street-workers drew attention to three distinct forms of attack. These could be interpreted in terms of Canter's (1994) Victim Role modes that have been the basis for differentiating offending styles in other violent interpersonal offences. The three Victim as Object, Victim as Vehicle and Victim as Person modes identified are consistent with different theoretical explanations for the attacks, providing a framework for integrating the diverse aetiological perspectives on violence against street sex- workers.